After Second District Court of Appeals upholds ruling that dismissed
a petition aimed at spurring Los Angeles County public health officials
to enforce worker safety laws during the filming of hardcore
pornography, AIDS Healthcare Foundation asks if the agency “…is immune
from judicial review and unaccountable to the public for its conduct?”

Original suit asked the court to order LA County to enforce
regulations that require “reasonable steps” to stem the spread of
disease, including requiring the use of condoms on film sets

July 27, 2011 02:39 PM Eastern Daylight Time

LOS ANGELES--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Today, AIDS
Healthcare Foundation (AHF) filed a petitionwith the California
Supreme Court seeking a review of a recent decision published by the
Second District Court of Appeal, Division Three, which upheld the
dismissal of AHF’s lawsuit seeking to compel Los Angeles County
Department of Public Health (DPH) to enforce regulations requiring
condom use in adult films.

“The Department of Public Health has a responsibility to try and control
the spread of STDs in LA County, especially in commercial venues. The
few steps that DPH has undertaken to address the issue of the spread of
STDs in the adult film industry amounts to ‘just talk,’”

The petition
filed today with the California Supreme Court argues that there are a
number of reasons for the Supreme Court to grant a review of the
decision. Among those is the fact that the issue at stake affects the
health of all Californians. The petition states: “The statutes in
question involve the duty of public health officers to protect the
public from the spread of communicable diseases in general, and sexually
transmitted diseases in particular. Everyone in the state will benefit
from this Court’s opinion on the extent to which county departments of
public health are immune from judicial scrutiny with respect to the
actions the agencies takes (or will not take) to fulfill their statutory
duty to combat the spread of communicable diseases in the face of a
widely acknowledged epidemic.”

Another reason cited: “The Second District’s restricted view… means, as
a practical matter, that the Los Angeles DPH can and will continue its
course of doing virtually nothing to address the current STD crisis – to
the detriment of the health of numerous Californians who will become
sick as a result of the agency’s dithering. It also means that other
Departments of Public Health throughout the state will be encouraged to
follow suit, knowing any neglect in discharging their public health
duties will go unseen by the courts.”

“The Department of Public Health has a responsibility to try and control
the spread of STDs in LA County, especially in commercial venues. The
few steps that DPH has undertaken to address the issue of the spread of
STDs in the adult film industry amounts to ‘just talk,’” said Michael
Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “AHF’s question
to the Supreme Court is: Is the LA County Department of Public Health
immune from judicial review and unaccountable to the public for its
conduct?”

Filed in July 2009, AHF’s original lawsuit asked the court to order Los
Angeles County to enforce regulations that require condom use in adult
film production or take other “reasonable steps” to stem the spread of
the disease. The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of California,
County of Los Angeles (Case No.: BS121665) and sought a writ of mandate
“compelling the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to
discharge its duty to combat an acknowledged epidemic of sexually
transmitted diseases stemming from production of hardcore pornography in
Los Angeles County.”

AHF filed the petition after exhausting all other methods to compel the
County to fulfill its obligation to protect the public’s health in the
wake of numerous reported cases of HIV among performers. At that time,
AHF had urged the County to better monitor HIV and STD prevention in the
region’s adult film industry—and require condom use—or to shut down porn
sets.

The fact that the DPH is aware of the ongoing pervasive sexually
transmitted disease crisis in LA’s pornography industry is well
documented. DPH has cited numerous figures confirming an STD epidemic
among performers in adult films, including the fact that performers in
hardcore pornography are ten times more likely to be
infected with a sexually transmitted disease than members of the
population at large.

According to figures cited by DPH, there were 2,013 documented cases of
Chlamydia among LA porn performers between 2003 and 2007. In the same
period, 965 cases of gonorrhea were documented. Many performers suffer
multiple infections. In the period April 2004 to March 2008 there have
been 2,847 STD infections diagnosed among 1,884 performers in the
hardcore industry in LA County. DPH attributes the epidemic of sexually
transmitted diseases in the porn industry to a lack of protective
equipment for partners, including condoms. The agency recommends condoms
be used during production, but has never taken steps to ensure their
use, or to protect the performers who are essentially required to
endanger their health in order to remain employed.

“The petition asks an important question: What is the role of state
courts when a petitioner credibly alleges that an agency has only taken
minimal, ineffective actions amounting to ‘just talk?’” said Laura
Boudreau, Assistant General Counsel for AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
“What level of deference is appropriate here, when the Legislature has
essentially decreed that the agency must act zealously, comprehensively
and effectively in responding to a public health crisis? If a court may
not scrutinize an agency’s conduct for compliance, then who can?”

AIDS
Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization,
currently provides medical care and services to more than 169,000
individuals in 27 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin
America/Caribbean the Asia/Pacific region and Eastern Europe. www.aidshealth.org